A BIG PROBLEM WITH OUR WATER

Dear Editor,

The big problem with the Murray Darling Basin Plan, anointed by the Howard Government and implemented in the dying days of minority Gillard Government and dependant on the Greens and Independent support, was that the then government had no irrigation seats and showed little regard for the irrigation industry.

The reliability of the communities and the value of irrigation production have been ignored. This has been demonstrated when the 450GL was added on afterward, conditional to being no socio-economic impacts. They want it unconditionally. There should be an inquiry into that.

The water has been taken from the irrigators and allocated to the environment with devastating results. The Shepparton district has lost half of its water.

It seems that the environment is not well managed with Lake Menindee, a previous popular fishing spot drained. Over a million fish, many quite large, have been killed and the Lower Darling being polluted and water made unfit for drinking. It is toxic.

A pipeline has been built to take water from the Murray River to the Darling Basin at Wentworth to pump water uphill to Broken Hill. Why should South Australia get plenty of water to turn previous saltwater lakes into freshwater lakes and NSW is given a zero allocation? All of this has happened under the Murray Darling Basin Authority. This is what happens when a Green ideology prevails.

Yours sincerely,

N Sims

Shepparton